Substantial problems are encountered in the handling and igniting of solid fuels in small pieces or lump forms, such as, for example, charcoal briquettes with are compressed from a solid carbonaceous fuel in powdered or finely divided form. Charcoal, one of the solid carbonaceous fuels, is widely used in lump or briquette form as a fuel for grills, barbecues and like cooking equipment for broiling, barbecueing and grilling. However, charcoal and other carbonaceous fuels in lump or briquette form has the serious disadvantage when used as a fuel of being extremely difficult to initially ignite in order to obtain combustion thereof sufficient for the fuel to burn to the desired more or less flameless bit of coals or embers required for grilling, barbecueing or other broiling purposes.
For example, with charcoal in lump or briquette form, it is necessary to employ some form of kindling or liquid igniting fuel, such as benzine, kerosene, methylalcohol, and the like, in sufficient quantity to burn for the necessary time to ignite the charcoal which has been raised to the point of self burning. With the use of kindling or starting fuels, it is difficult to time the igniting of the charcoal and the combustion thereof to the point where the desired fire is established for properly and satisfactorily grilling and broiling thereover. The use of the liquid fuels has resulted in injury due to flashing and flaming up of the highly volatile substances therein, and generally results in a smoky flame. Additionally, nitrates, nitrides and nitrocelluloses and other easily ignited materials have been combined with the hereinabove mentioned liquid fuels to assist in the ignition thereof have caused undesirable pirotechnic effects. All of the prior art materials tend to pollute the air.
Charcoal and similar carbonaceous fuels in lump or briquette form present a further serious disadvantage from the standpoint of transportation, storage and distribution thereof, as well as in the handling thereby of the ultimate user as a result of the relatively porous and soft characteristics of such fuels. Such characteristics are of particularly disadvantage in bulk handling, transportation and distribution thereof, for dust and soot accumulates therefrom in the containers or carriers resulting, in some instances, in the spontaneous combustion and ignition of the mass of fuel. The soot or dust problems have been of particular problem to the retailer or seller or such fuels to the ultimate consumer. Such retailer merchants have had a reluctance, even when the fuel is bagged and packaged in conventional packaging form to sufficiently stock such packaged fuels because of the space requirements and the difficulty of stacking or placing them in a position readily available to the customer, particularly as a result of the inevitable soiling or sooting of the packages as a result of handling. Consequently, retailers keep only a small supply of such package fuels.
Many solutions to the problems of self-igniting carbonaceous matter have been advanced, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 2,381,891, there is disclosed a process for incorporating combination of the various combustible material with particulate carbonaceous material which is subsequently briquetted to form a fuel composition to be used as a fire kindler. In U.S. Pat. No. 2,816,013, there is disclosed a process for impregnating a fuel body (charcoal briquette) with a pure liquid alkane and subsequently immersing the impregnated briquette into a second liquid material which polimerizes and forms a coating about the briquette. In addition to such suggestions, other solutions have been advanced, including the impregnating of the briquettes with a volatile material with the subsequent packaging of such impregnated material in an impervious container. Still further aids in igniting charcoal beds are directed to kindling tablets, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 2,854,321.